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tv   BBC World News America  WHUT  December 29, 2011 6:30pm-7:00pm EST

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>> this is "bbc world news america." funding for this presentation is made possible by -- the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu newman's own foundation and union bank. >> at union bank, our relationship managers work hard to know your business. offering specialized solutions and capital to meet your growth objectives, we offer expertise and tailored solutions for small businesses and major corporations. what can we do for you?
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>> and now, "bbc world news america." >> reports say up to 40 people have been killed by syrian forces in spite of a visit by monitors there to oversee a peace plan. egyptian forces raided the offices of several human rights groups. the u.s. hits out. turkey admits there were planes probably killed cigarette smugglers, not militants in northern iraq. with the tusks of more than 2000 dead elephants seized this year, this is the worst are every year on record. -- this is the worst ivory year on record. making sure that the votes
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counted in the jamaican elections. in syria, protesters have taken to the streets where arab league observers have been focusing. up to 40 people have been killed across the country including four in a damascus suburbs. the observers visited deraa, idlib, and hama. >> in idlib, protesters called for the overthrow the regime and the execution of the president. the presence of international monitors has not changed the course of the uprising or the ferocity of the regime's response. in hama, one of the cradles of
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the protest movement, troops reportedly opened fire. activists say at least 10 people were killed. there was similar scenes in deraa. the pictures are hard to verify but in a northern suburb of damascus, monitors were visiting city hall when security forces were said to have opened fire on demonstrators. how am partial candies arab league monitors be when some of their own governments are also cracking down on similar popular uprisings? >> the forces are reliant for their safety and freedom of movements on the very people they're supposed to be monitoring. the arab league represents 22 arab states. their mission is led by a sudanese general, himself accused of gross human rights
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abuses in our for -- in darfur. amnesty international says that he is responsible for overseeing torture in his own country. the observers were confronted by the unmistakable rage on the streets. the regime has cut off electricity to the anti-assad neighborhoods. he said that they are sending tanks. we want you to record it all with your camera is. as families continue to bury the dead, the monitoring mission must try to ensure that the regime complies with the arab league a plan to end the crackdown. it is early days. the u.s. has appealed to the protest leaders to give the monitors time. the protesters say 130 have been
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killed in the three days since the monitors arrived. >> and united states has expressed deep concern after the offices of a number of pro- democracy and human rights groups were rated by security forces. among them were two u.s.-based organizations. the american state department has called on the authorities to return confiscated property and stop harassment of the staff. according to the police, this is part of an investigation into illicit foreign funding. >> they are there to assist the democratic process. some of these are supported by the united states government. they are in the world helping citizens realize their goals of a democratic process taking root in their country. we have been very open and transparent with egyptian authorities at all levels,
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particularly about the operating procedures and policies, and other international organizations. >> a joining us live from washington, the head of the national democratic institute for middle east programs. was your organization among the organizations that was on the receiving end of this behavior? >> yes, we were surprised to receive these in the three of our offices. they were polite and insistent. they came in and did a search and seize materials. >> what is your understanding of the terminology and is there any proof? >> there is interesting terminology. we received grants from the u.s. agency for international development and the british agency for international
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development. we provide training and advice to political parties. we received grants from the u.s. government in this particular case. we were open about that. we have been working since 2005. i don't really know what that terminology is. there is unhappiness in some quarters of egypt with what they perceive as perhaps meddling in their political system. this is a larger issue and they are addressing it unfortunately like ours.ngo's >> there is no way that you could have been scammed and the money that you think you are using has come from the wrong place. >> this has come from the u.s. agency for international
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development and the department of state. this is very clear and typical funding of organizations and ngo's like ourselves. this is very much about each of trying to negotiate with the international community. they are attempting to negotiate how foreign aid is spent in egypt. >> if one just dips into what was going on over the past couple of weeks, it looks like the people that now run egypt are behaving a lot like the people that used to run egypt. is that your experience? >> i would not have said that until today. they have taken great pains. we actually have had very good relationships. we have sent observer
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delegations to the first two rounds of elections. today, i hesitate to say it is unprecedented though we have actually had offices raided. we have had dozens of computers confiscated. money taken out of safes. this is an escalation. this is not something that we aren't fighting. we would prefer to have good to indication to be transparent. if you ask us questions, we will answer them. there is no need to re to the offices. >> india has failed to pass its anti-corruption legislation. on the off -- the upper house of parliament ran out of time to pass the bill. turkey's ruling party has confessed that warplanes which
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killed 35 people in northern iraq probably hit the wrong targets. a spokesman said initial reports suggests that most of the victims were smugglers and not a kurdish separatist guerrillas. the pro kurdish party described the killings as a massacre of civilians. >> they were brought back to the village on the donkeys they had left with. 35 people, many no older than 20. killed in turkish air strikes just across the border in northern iraq. the military thought that they were kurdish rebels that they now confess that they were smugglers bringing its cigarettes from iraq into turkey. the turkish government says that the raids were shocking and saddening and they promise that there will be no cover-up of any mistakes. that will not impressed the locals. they say smugglers often use the mountains to bring sugar and fuel into turkey and the military know it. kurdish rebels from the
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separatist group pkk use the passes too. these pictures show a recent operation against the rebels. that confrontation has intensified in recent months. the authorities say they but border guards on heightened alerts following intelligence reports that more attacks are planned. they say they are now investigating failure in that intelligence. in istanbul, signs that the air strikes have worsened the poor relations between the turkish state and its kurdish minority. around 2000 kurds gathered in the city's taksim square to vent eir anger in what seems to have been a catastrophic mistake. >> the transition of power in north korea has been completed with kim jong un hailed as supreme leader for the first time. this follows nearly two weeks of nationwide morning after the
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death of his father. >> it sounds like a religious service and perhaps it is. north korean ideology says that kim jong un bill's birth was supranatural. birth wasg il's supranatural. there was a spectacle of tens of thousands of civilians and soldiers acting like machines. this is from another time, when dictatorships outnumbered democracies. soon, it turned into a coronation. this was the moment when kim jong un, the new leader, gets the public allegiance of the military hierarchy. each of them are more than double his age. up stepped a general to pay homage on behalf of the armed forces. the entire military will gather
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around kim jong un to protect him. they will move as one. the true moment of coronation comes when the ceremonial head of state gives him his new official title and -- a supreme leader of the party, the military, and the people. the new supreme leader does not exactly look very enthusiastic about it all. not surprising because he is now the boss of a desperately poor country threatened by famine. at an age of just less than 30, he has his finger on a nuclear weapon. his main asset is that he comes from the right family. the guns salute the passing of the old leader. kim jong il was a weird, self
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indulgent eccentric but at least he became a known quantity. now that he is dead, no one has any idea what his son is capable of, not even kim jong un himself. right across north korea, the horns and sirens marked the end of the ceremony. this was a troubled country with a highly uncertain future. down here in seoul, there is no great interest in all of that regiment grief just a hundred miles away to the north. doesn't kim jong il -- does kim jong il's death mean that the end of the regime is near? there are some who think this might be a possibility. >> you are watching "bbc world news." the pakistani doctor who gave testimony against the security forces is found dead.
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iran has showcased the strength of their navy in the persian gulf and tensions remain high in the region. tehran has threatened to close the straits of hormuz, a critical shipping lane for oil exports, if the west imposes sanctions. >> iran's state television has released these pictures designed to show the navy's strength in the persian gulf. iran says that these shots taken from one of its helicopters show a u.s. aircraft carrier patrolling the same international waters. iran's navy is currently carrying out 10 days of naval exercises in the area. they have threatened to close the nearby st. of hormuz if the west imposes sanctions on iran's vital oil exports.
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>> close in the strait of hormuz is such an easy job for the islamic report -- at islamic republic's armed forces. this is a basic capability of the navy. today, we have gone beyond the strait of hormuz and have the oman sea under control as well. >> the straits connect several of the oil-producing countries to the rest of the world. about 17% of the world's oil exports passed through the straits in 2010. 80% of iran's total exports come from crude oil and half of the government's revenues come from exports. iran's threat to close the strait has been dismissed as a rhetorical gesture. its navy does not act alone in the area. the united states has warned that any disruption to the flow of shipping will not be
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tolerated. >> this is "bbc world news," these are the top stories. up to 40 people have been killed by syrian forces despite the presence of monitors there to oversee a peace plan. egyptian officials raided the offices of several human rights groups. a doctor who testified that pakistani security forces have killed a group of on armed foreigners have some self been shot dead. he was gunned down after contradicting police reports earlier this year which suggested the five russian victims had been suicide bombers. >> on thursday, gunman pulled up beside his car and sprayed with
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bullets. he died of his wounds. back in may, he had done the post mortem in a controversial case that implicated pakistan's security forces. hear, already badly injured, two women can be seen holding hands, lying close to a check post. one raises her arm penn to the security forces respond with a prolonged first of gunfire. -- one raises her arm. the security forces respond with a prolonged burst of gunfire. one of the women had been heavily pregnant. the police insisted that they had been suicide bombers. they died as a debt explosives. the dr. crawford what many had seen. -- they died as they detonated explosives. the doctor robert it the
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witnesses. he contradicted the police claims that dr. shah was beaten up by unidentified protectors. he knew he was in danger and asked for protection. his family said it was never provided. >> there have been many protests in pakistan and afghanistan after the civilian deaths caused by unmanned civilian drones used for air strikes. the technology is big business in the u.s.. southern california has become a hub for developing and building is devices. they could soon be used in the u.s. as well as abroad. >> wars fought with the drones in a futuristic world is how the american air force is advertising the new recruits. thousands of drones are already in use and every year, the u.s. government is spending billions on new ones. here in california, the race is on to develop and unveiled the
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latest, most high-tech, and the biggest, or the smallest. these hand-held drones are widely used by the military and in a few weeks, the u.s. aviation regulator is bringing in new rules. drones, and all sorts of sizes. this is one of the smallest. the one that is overhead is not much bigger than this. it was launched by hand. you can see how good the picture is. the future is even smaller still. this is the nano hummingbird. it weighs less than a battery. it is designed to blend in. it has a spy camera on board. new drones are being built and heavily marketed by private companies. l.a. police have been trying to
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get permission to fly drugs for years. >> they can go where you cannot send a manned aircraft. they are also very portable. you can put it in the trunk of a car and it would be right there where you needed. >> we were looking for technology. >> his predecessor come up with the idea 8 years ago after serving in iraq. >> we got to use it one time. we were asked to stop by the faa and we did. >> that is set to change with the new regulation allowing more it is in the sky watching people's backyards. -- allowing more eyes in the sky watching people's backyards. >> this raises a lot of interesting privacy concerns about what people are allowed to acquire from above and what they aren't. >> while the debate continues
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about the military use of drones, it might soon become a bigger issue closer to home. >> a russian nuclear submarine has caught fire in a shipyard in a northern region while undergoing repairs. officials said there had been no radiation leak. they said that the reactors had been shut off. no missiles were on board and no one was injured. the fire spread to the hole from a fire on wooden scaffolding. a rally in support of a jailed opposition leader has passed peacefully. they gathered against the continued detention. the demonstration is the latest in a wave of anti-government unrest after parliamentary elections were allegedly rigged in favor of vladimir putin's united russia party. 2011, the worst year for the seizure of ivory of elephant tusks the rise in demand is from
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asia and that is the cause. >> the international community has been battling for years to stop poachers from hunting elephants for their valuable tasks. a ban on the trade would solve the problem and protect vulnerable kurds, it was what thought. that dream is in doubt as new figures show that 2011 was the worst year for the seizure of elephant ivory in more than two decades. 23 tons were seized this year representing two and a half thousand dead elephants. some of it came from government stockpiles and africa which are supposedly off limits. while the demand for ivory continues to rise, the termination of criminal gangs remain. >> we have more chinese and asians than in any time in
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africa's history. unfortunately, we now have criminal syndicates that have penetrated the continent as never before. they are flush with finance and they are rapidly moving elephant ivory and other animal commodities to asian markets. the challenge just keeps escalating. >> law enforcement officials are struggling to keep up the smugglers. this is the latest seizure of illegal ivory, often used as the gateway in an illicit trade. 1.4 million tons were confiscated early this month. as long as asian economies continue to grow, the demand for ivory will not decline. >> the polls have closed in jamaica in a general election dominated by concerns over the island's economy. the prime minister has only been in office for two months and
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called for snap elections a year early. whoever wins will face deep economic problems. the island has a punishing debt of roughly $18.6 billion. that is 130% of gdp. it is thought that tough austerity measures will have to be implemented to pay the debt back. there has been election violence in the past, so i asked about the mood there. >> in the 1980 vote, some 8 -- some 800 people died. in 2002, there was political murders. there is heavy police presence. it is enough to make people feel comfortable. it has been quiet on the streets. crime is less of an issue in this country. you might remember back in 2010, it was a state of emergency.
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there has been some drops. for once, crime is not the major concern, it is the economy. there is the high ratio of debt to gdp and concern about unemployment. they want to make sure that there are jobs, jobs, jobs for all of the people there. that is what they say needs to be dealt with. it is really the economy which is highlighted many people's concerns here. >> two polar bear cubs are causing a lot of storm. they were born two months ago and they are set to go public for the first time in the new year. they are the second set born to a mother and father which were given to the zoo by finland as a gift of friendship. how cute is that. more news on the website,
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bbc.com/news. >> make sense of m/coc. news. bbc.com/news. >> funding for this presentation is made possible by -- the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu newman's own foundation d union bank. >> at union bank, our relationship managers work hard to know your business. offering specialized solutions and capital to meet your growth objectives, we offer expertise and tailored solutions for small businesses and major corporations. what can we do for you?
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>> "bbc world news" was presented by kcet, los angeles.
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